Happier Abroad Forum Community

Currious how many of you working abroad have come to share this point of view.

To give some background I'm an American busssiness guy working in Asia.

I work with people from India, Korea, China, Japan and Singapore. These people are a blast to talk to and I always enjoy our meetings. We get shit done! But when I have a call scheduled with the Americans or worse when they call me out of the blue, frankly I dread it. I find myself avoiding these calls whenever possible.

Here's what I observe relative to working with other countries:

* They are always panicked, all cranked up on sugar, coffee, talking as fast as humanly possible. Not taking any time to pause and reflect. Always want the quick answer, the quick solution. Everyone speaks, nobody listens.

* They are always being pushy, ending the call by asserting absurd deadlines for their ill conceived plan. You know what, I don't answer to you. And I also know your plan is going to fail and the whole thing will be a pointless exercise haha.

* Disrespectful, never really listening to anyone. The conversation always begins with small talk but they don't really care about knowing you, just using you for business. And then they get down to business and don't listen to anything you say. Nobody I work with in Asia addresses people like that. I find myself having to back them up and repeat the same thing three times. Are they low IQ or ADD? They just push ahead on their addenda ignoring the fact that it's never going to work.

* The arguing! Attempting to keep the meeting one on one is the only hope. Group meetings with Americans *always* turn into arguing myopic pointless "points". It will go on for an hour, some tangent, like they are total ADD or semi-retarded and we never actually cover anything we expected to discuss. All the international participants are like "WTF is happening?". Why did they keep arguing about that off topic detail??

* The ill conceived plan, after all this hassle, of course fails. But they never pause long enough to learn from their mistakes, or recall that I explained patiently to them why it wouldn't work in our initial meeting (they were not listening) they just book "round 2" of the meetings from hell. That's why they work 60hrs a week with no vacation yet never get shit done.

What a freak show! . While I am an American I don't do business like that...and I find myself avoiding these guys as they are such a drag to be around.

Maybe it's just me?

Posts like this are motivation to leave, but also motivation to try to move toward sanity while still here. Thanks.

sushiman wrote:Currious how many of you working abroad have come to share this point of view.

To give some background I'm an American busssiness guy working in Asia.

I work with people from India, Korea, China, Japan and Singapore. These people are a blast to talk to and I always enjoy our meetings. We get shit done! But when I have a call scheduled with the Americans or worse when they call me out of the blue, frankly I dread it. I find myself avoiding these calls whenever possible.

Here's what I observe relative to working with other countries:

* They are always panicked, all cranked up on sugar, coffee, talking as fast as humanly possible. Not taking any time to pause and reflect. Always want the quick answer, the quick solution. Everyone speaks, nobody listens.

* They are always being pushy, ending the call by asserting absurd deadlines for their ill conceived plan. You know what, I don't answer to you. And I also know your plan is going to fail and the whole thing will be a pointless exercise haha.

* Disrespectful, never really listening to anyone. The conversation always begins with small talk but they don't really care about knowing you, just using you for business. And then they get down to business and don't listen to anything you say. Nobody I work with in Asia addresses people like that. I find myself having to back them up and repeat the same thing three times. Are they low IQ or ADD? They just push ahead on their addenda ignoring the fact that it's never going to work.

* The arguing! Attempting to keep the meeting one on one is the only hope. Group meetings with Americans *always* turn into arguing myopic pointless "points". It will go on for an hour, some tangent, like they are total ADD or semi-retarded and we never actually cover anything we expected to discuss. All the international participants are like "WTF is happening?". Why did they keep arguing about that off topic detail??

* The ill conceived plan, after all this hassle, of course fails. But they never pause long enough to learn from their mistakes, or recall that I explained patiently to them why it wouldn't work in our initial meeting (they were not listening) they just book "round 2" of the meetings from hell. That's why they work 60hrs a week with no vacation yet never get shit done.

What a freak show! . While I am an American I don't do business like that...and I find myself avoiding these guys as they are such a drag to be around.

Maybe it's just me?

Dude, you're not alone. I used to work in the healthcare field and dealing with Americans every day led me to quit my job and think about going overseas! Americans are some of the most rudest and nastiest people on the planet! It's always conflict when dealing with Americans!

sushiman wrote: * The arguing! Attempting to keep the meeting one on one is the only hope. Group meetings with Americans *always* turn into arguing myopic pointless "points". It will go on for an hour, some tangent, like they are total ADD or semi-retarded and we never actually cover anything we expected to discuss. All the international participants are like "WTF is happening?". Why did they keep arguing about that off topic detail??

I made a post about this awhile about how pedantic Americans were. I was talking about American men in particular but American people in general like to nitpick, moan, and whine over every little point and insist on forcing the issue even when you've pretty much moved on from said argument. Then later they hang the point on your head as some kind of ego affirming thing. It's really annoying passive-aggressive type behavior.

Plus watch what happens when you're in a room that has women in it. The demeanor and attitude tends to become even more idiotic.

Jester wrote:Posts like this are motivation to leave, but also motivation to try to move toward sanity while still here. Thanks.

Once you break free and start adapting to the new life you'll start noticing currious shit. Like up until a few months ago I always said "we" and "us" when referring to Americans but all of a sudden I started saying "them". I guess subconsciously I don't want to be associated!

Coworker: "who was that on the phone".
Me: "oh jeez, it was the Americans!"
Coworker: "what do they want, that was a long call"
Me: "honestly I have no freakin idea! Can I change my #?"

The awesome thing is they can only call you from around 8-10am Asia time, after that it's mostly safe.

Yes Americans are incredibly dysfunctional, sick f***ed up people. Especially the women. But the men are also f***ed up, after all they were RAISED by American women.

The whole culture is just a shithole that needs to be flushed down the toilet. I don't know how to say it any better than that.

boycottamericanwomen wrote:Yes Americans are incredibly dysfunctional, sick f***ed up people. Especially the women. But the men are also f***ed up, after all they were RAISED by American women.

The whole culture is just a shithole that needs to be flushed down the toilet. I don't know how to say it any better than that.

You've said as best you could.

Put it this way: You took the words right out of my mouth (or fingers).

Repatriate wrote:I made a post about this awhile about how pedantic Americans were.

The funny thing is they think this is showing how smart they are...

This happened to me in Mexico:

Mexican guy: "You don't talk like an American."
Me: "Wow, really? Then what do they talk like?"
Mexican guy: "RAWR RAWR RAWR RAWR."

LMAO

Falcon wrote:This happened to me in Mexico:

Mexican guy: "You don't talk like an American."
Me: "Wow, really? Then what do they talk like?"
Mexican guy: "RAWR RAWR RAWR RAWR."

Shit. Maybe that's why my Mexican gf's Colombian friends call me "Bam-Bam."

And here i thought it was a GOOD thing!

If course the gf calls me "Cochino" and I think THAT'S good thing.....